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Do you buy fuel at Motorway Services?

JohnnyDee

JohnnyDee

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When out and about the other day I noticed the cost of fuel at Beaconsfield services on the M25 was £1.27!!!

Add to this the horrendously over expensive food costs and I'm amazed anyone uses them for anything other than the loos.

They're allowed to fleece us on the basis that they're convenient. Not for me, I see them as cynical rip-off merchants preying on us all, and as someone doing 30,000 miles a year I have yet to buy fuel in one. I now know nearby alternatives (supermarkets) to most that I pass habitually where I buy my fuel and a cuppa.

I think in 'austere' times they should be regulated and made fall in line with other businesses. They are the retail equivalent of payday loan sharks.
 
Never, ever bought fuel at a motorway service station. Horrific prices. As for food, you pay for the convenience, I may get a coffee and a snack but nothing more.

The one excuse I'll give the operator's is that rents for service stations are very high and so to cover those they have to increase their prices. It's not just greed, they need to charge more to cover the extra costs.
 
Am I right in thinking that the gov't give licenses for services? They cause the problem by inflating the licence price, causing high rents and so prices. If they were to regulate pricing it would be ironic as they cause the issue in the first place. Happy to be corrected but I think that is how it works.
 
Agree totally , don't see how they can get away with the petrol charges.
Simply if people bought elsewhere, they would have to be competitive, but there are obviously sufficient customers who do buy there to keep the price differential .

Let's start a campaign :)
 
Lord Tyrion said:
Am I right in thinking that the gov't give licenses for services? They cause the problem by inflating the licence price, causing high rents and so prices. If they were to regulate pricing it would be ironic as they cause the issue in the first place. Happy to be corrected but I think that is how it works.
Click to expand...

I believe you're right as I think I've heard this in the past as justification for the eye-watering prices.
 
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All the time, but thats with a company fuel card and in my works van.
My personal car, only if absolutely desperate, as my car use's the higher RON stuff. Dread to think how much that is from a service station. (its normally about £1.28 a litre round my neck of the woods)
 
I only buy fuel in service stations if i have to. Prices are inflated because they can.

Whilst working I claim expenses for food so it doesn't worry me so much although the quality of food at such places is horrendous. I mostly buy from M&S and Waitrose and leave the fast , hot food well alone.
 
Only buy fuel from service stations if desperate, but as said above its a free economy and its up to them what they charge.
 
Only if I've been caught short or on a long journey and in an area where I don't know where the local filling stations are. Even then, I'll only buy enough to get off the motorway plus a bit to run around.

Its a company fuel card, so doesn't cost me but...

Several years ago I did an analysis of where our engineers where buying fuel. It was costing, on average, £2000 a month more than it should. Over £20k a year. It takes an income of over £80k to generate £20k to spend.
 
I can't recall EVER putting fuel in at a motorway services. The main one I stop at seems to be Cobham on the M25 and often the food isn't too badly priced
 
I've done a few times on long car journeys.

Really I am paying for the convenience and to shorten my journey so for me it has always been worth it for the time gained by convenience.

I value time more than money, I can always earn more money... Hopefully.
 
I would only buy their fuel if I was desperate and then only enough to get to another station off the motorway. Surely they are losing masses of business charging the way they do.

There is a fairly new Service station on the M5 just south of Gloucester, it is run by the same people who have that nice services in Cumbria on the M6. It has a very good cafe and a first class farm shop selling local produce including a really good butchers. Petrol is the normal rip off prices though.
 
I buy there if it works out that way. The little amount of driving I am doing, shopping around for fuel prices wouldn't save me much more tha £10 a year, so it's not worth the hassle.

I usually fill up at my local Tesco, so it's only really on the few long journeys I have the need to fill elsewhere.
 
Don't spend too long on the motorways as have an easy commute. That said, if I'm enroute somewhere and have to but some from one I do so without the lose of any sleep.

I do approx 15k a year in travel. Even if I had to pay the extra 10p for all of em, it's nit enough for me to make me begrudge doing so. They're a convenience store. How many people pay for takeaway or food at a cinema? All products that can be sourced easier if your forego the convenience of them.
 
We were once getting very low on fuel and HID wanted to go to the next services. I suggested simply coming off at the next junction (closer) and we saved an absolute fortune per gallon. I see them as modern day highwaymen, holding the modern day motorist to ransom
 
Never bought fuel at a sevices in this country, but have done it abroad loads of times, don't know if it's the same policy over there though.
As for the food and/or drink, has anyone tried Mc Ds ? I know its not everyone's cup of tea (:o) but the prices are the same as the high street.(Admittedly this is an assumption based on the prices at Chester and Keele services, can't swear to the rest of the country).
The coffee is'nt completely undrinkable.
 
Not a cat in hells chance, when I went down to Southampton the other week a warning light came on for the tyre pressure. Pulled in at service station and they wanted a quid to put air in my tyre. Robbing gits. If I had learned to do cartwheels at Skool I would of done one at that moment because the machine was broken anyway. 20 p it cost me in Southampton.
 
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